The incredibly destructive French riots of 2005 were set off when two “youths” fled from police, broke into an electrical station to hide, and then were electrocuted when they touched the wrong thing. This triggered three weeks of intense violence, with thousand of cars burned and many people injured.

It’s almost too absurd to believe, but in the town of Clichy-sous-Bois, scene of the worst rioting, the French government has turned the electrical station into a monument to these two fleeing thugs who died entirely due to their own actions. It’s naked appeasement at its absolute worst.

And a few days ago, French presidential candidate Segolene Royal visited the memorial, laid a wreath on it, and commiserated with the parents of the two dead criminals.

French Socialist Presidential candidate Segolene Royal, the mother (no name available) of Zyed Benna, Zyed’s father Amor Benna, and relatives of late Bouna Traore, from left, stand at attention during a minute of silence during a wreath laying ceremony in homage to Zyed and Bouna in Clichy-sous-Bois, east of Paris, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007. Royal Tuesday visited the troubled neighborhood outside Paris where three weeks of rioting erupted in 2005, a highly symbolic campaign stop in a very tight race. Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore were killed on Oct. 27, 2005 as they hid from police in a power substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

This is completely insane. What the hell is wrong with the French? (Rhetorical exit question.)

Previously at LGF: French Jawdropper of the Day.

UPDATE at 3/2/07 5:30:56 pm:

Sheik Yer’mami has more on Segolene’s pandering to radical Islam: France: “Extremely Far Right Extremist”-just like “Islamophobic”.